Man may face jail time for hate crime against Black family

Glenn Eugene Halfin, 64, hung a doll with a noose in a racist attack last year.

A Texas man is facing jail time over several racist attacks against a Black family. Glenn Eugene Halfin, 64, pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime on July 12, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Halfin hung a baby doll with a noose around its neck outside of his African-American neighbor’s apartment in Grapevine last December. The man purchased the doll from Walmart as part of his heinous plan to intimidate Dante Petty, 28, documents filed last year revealed. The incident was videotaped and posted to Facebook by Petty, whose young daughter was also living with him.

“I just wanna show people that racism is very well ALIVE AND REAL,” Petty said in the post. “Thank God I put a camera up outside my apt because when I saw this man hanging a doll off the rails. I was so fill[ed] up with anger…”

There were other stalking and harassment incidents named in the case against Halfin, the Justice Department release said.

Halfin pleaded guilty to interfering with the African-American family’s housing rights in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. He had “threatened force, intimidated, and interfered with a family because of their race and occupancy of an apartment that was located directly above his own apartment,” the Justice Department said.

“No one should be afraid to go home at night,” U.S. Attorney ErinNealy Cox said about the case. “Our community will not tolerate crimes of intimidation or bigotry, and my office will continue to prosecute all those who persecute others based on their race, color, ethnicity, or religious beliefs.”

The FBI and Grapevine Police Department investigated the case. Halfin faces a statutory maximum penalty of no more one year in federal prison and a $100,000 fine. The man’s sentencing is scheduled for October 24, the Justice Department said.